Playing Lunar Lander on a 1969 Computer

It’s hard to believe, but from the perspective of digital entertainment, we are a privileged generation. Entire movies and series are just a couple of clicks away, games load in seconds, and we can combine multiple generations of platforms into a single system… but it wasn’t always like that. A striking proof comes from the small channel “somecomputerguy,” which shared a session of Lunar Lander on a SEL 810A computer from 1969… with the entire loading process included.

The Ritual of Loading

Many Commodore 64 users (including me) never had access to the 1541 drive, and their primary means of loading games was the Datasette. Command “LOAD,” followed by “PRESS PLAY ON TAPE”… and wait. Loading time depended on the size of the game, and in some cases it was several minutes. Of course, it was all worth it back then. The Datasette delay was simply part of the ritual. Computers were humble, but we still felt like gods.

If we go further back in time, the idea amplifies. The possibility of loading and running a program in twenty minutes or less was revolutionary. Tasks impossible for a human became a reasonable chore… and that persisted for years. A recent proof comes via the channel “somecomputerguy”. The SEL 810A computer you’ll see below is from 1969, and it was working in a natural gas plant until 2006. What did he do with it? Play Lunar Lander:

The Long Road to Lunar Lander

But it’s not a matter of “install the tape and that’s it.” The first step is preparing the bootstrap, which enables loading the first tape. The process is completely manual, and at one point in the video he mentions that operators of that system raced to see who could set up the bootstrap fastest. The second tape is a BASIC compiler from 1972, which requires additional commands, and another wait of several minutes.

The third step is… a compatibility patch! The software was written for the SEL 810B, but with a slight adjustment in its memory blocks, it works without issues on the 810A. Finally, the last tape loads from the terminal. The version of Lunar Lander is text-based, and it’s much harder to play than its graphical edition, since the player must manually enter the desired power every ten seconds while closely watching fuel consumption. In short, loading the program and installing patches was part of the game. The demonstration is fabulous, and at the same time, it teaches us a bit of patience.